Training program from TAU cuts soldiers' risk of PTSD

Training targets innocuous "threats" before combat to prevent post-traumatic stress disorder

07 July 2016

Computerized attention training may prevent the flare-up of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in soldiers exposed to combat, according to a new study from researchers at Tel Aviv University.

 

Attention bias modification training (ABMT) — a computerized intervention — was used to help soldiers attend to pre-combat threats, reducing the risk of PTSD outbreaks post-combat, said Prof. Yair Bar-Haim of TAU's School of Psychological Sciences and Sagol School of Neuroscience, who led the research team. Four sessions of ABMT designed to enhance threat monitoring in soldiers, delivered during basic training and prior to combat deployment, mitigated the risk of PTSD following combat exposure by two-thirds.

 

The study was carried out in collaboration with the Israel Defence Forces, the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, and the National Institutes of Health. The results were published in Psychological Medicine.

 

Focusing on a single factor

"Individuals with PTSD may exhibit alertness and hyper-excitability, the tendency to avoid threats, and an uncontrollable re-experiencing of traumatic events," Prof. Bar-Haim said. "But there is one common factor related to PTSD that emerged from our studies with soldiers over the years: a difficulty to monitor and assess potential threats.

 

"In 2008, we followed large groups of infantry soldiers, from basic training to actual combat. We found that soldiers who avoided potential threats presented to them on a computer screen were at greater risk for developing post-traumatic stress syndrome after actual combat.

 

"One would think that a combat soldier would be more attentive to external threats than a person walking down the street," said Prof. Bar-Haim. "However, psychologically, a soldier who avoids threat-processing is more likely to develop post-traumatic symptoms. Our 'threat attentional-training' facilitates protective forms of threat-processing during combat by countering inappropriate threat-avoidance patterns."

 

The program is now being prepared for full-scale implementation by the IDF. If the results are replicated in US troops, the US Army may follow suit. Other at-risk populations may also benefit, such as first responders like policemen and firefighters, Prof. Bar-Haim noted.

 

Cutting PTSD by two-thirds

719 IDF soldiers aged 18–27 years were assigned to one of two groups. The first underwent the attention bias modification training (ABMT); the second received no training at all. Symptoms of PTSD were measured at the start of the study period, at a six-month check-up, ten days following combat exposure, and four months following combat. Results showed that soldiers who trained with the ABMT protocol presented only a third of the risk to develop PTSD following combat relative to soldiers who had received no training.

 

The established efficacy of ABMT in the current study, the large population at elevated risk, and the low dissemination costs of ABMT warrant research into larger-scale application, said Prof. Bar-Haim. "Our data also suggest that the effects of ABMT can last up to fourteen months following initial training," said Prof. Bar-Haim. He is currently working closely with the IDF on large-scale implementation of the program in the Israeli army.

 

This article was originally published by AFTAU.

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